In most societies the medical field is undergoing a dramatic reorien- tion. Fundamentally new technologies in diagnosis and therapy, as well as the extension of life expectations, have increased health costs to an extent that now nears the limits of acceptability. One consequence has been a reevaluation of the need for and duration of each individual hospitalization. For diagnostic laboratories, results must now be obtained rapidly in order to include them in therapeutic decisions. Furth- more, therapeutic approaches to the control of infectious agents, limited by the number of therapeutic compounds available and by the growing perce- age of multiresistant agents, now require improvement in the precision of diagnostic approaches. The necessity for maximal reduction of the risk of infection by the development of appropriate pharmaceutical products demands even higher levels of sensitivity in diagnostic tests. Today's highly purified antigens---often from recombinantly generated antigens or peptides, monoclonal or recombinant antibodies, and more sen- tive signal-production and signal-detection systems--have greatly advanced immunologically based detection methodology. However, this approach has biological limits that further enhancement of sensitivity cannot breach. Fortunately nucleic acids have now been quite successfully added to the sp- trum of diagnostic targets. Recombinant-produced antigens and the integration of microelectronics and microfluidics offer new perspectives and possibilities.

Keywords

infectious diseases

Reviews

Review of the first edition:
"This work represents one of the most up-to-date molecular biology protocols books to date. . .Anyone who has the interest and resources to develop novel assays not only for infectious diseases but also for other diseases will benefit tremendously from this book. . a valuable purchase to keep as a quick protocol source."-Archives of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine

Editors and Affiliations

University of Regensburg, Germany

Udo Reischl

Bibliographic Information

Book Title: Molecular Diagnosis of Infectious Diseases
Editors: Udo Reischl
Series Title: Methods in Molecular Medicine
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1385/0896034852
Publisher: Humana Totowa, NJ
eBook Packages: Springer Protocols
Copyright Information: Springer Science+Business Media New York 1998
eBook ISBN: 978-1-59259-597-6Published: 18 January 2008
Series ISSN: 1543-1894
Series E-ISSN: 1940-6037
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XV, 629
Number of Illustrations: 126 b/w illustrations
Topics: Infectious Diseases

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Table of contents (36 protocols)

Front Matter

Recombinant Proteins and Peptide

Front Matter

Identification of Important Antigens

Identification of Corresponding Open Reading Frames

Identification of Important Antigenic Epitopes

Cloning and Expression of Open Reading Frames in Prokaryontic Systems

Cloning and Expression of Open Reading Frames in Eukaryontic Systems

Purification of Recombinant Proteins

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